Coastal Forces of World War II

Coastal Forces was a division of the Royal Navy established during World War II. It consisted of small coastal defence craft which the Navy designated with names such as: Motor Launch, High Speed Launch, air-sea rescue, Motor Gun Boat and Motor Torpedo Boat. It did not include landing craft, trawlers or purpose-built minesweepers. Other Navies operated equivalent boats, but classified and named them somewhat differently.

This article attempts to pull together, for comparative purposes, some statistics concerning the coastal forces of different navies. It starts with the above British definition of "Coastal Forces" and attempts to identify the equivalent boats in other navies.

Coastal Forces of the United Kingdom
Main article: Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy
Type Designation Built Lost Designed purpose
Motor Launches ML, HDML ASR Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDML) and submarine chasing or for armed high speed Air Sea Rescue.
Motor Gun Boats MGB
Steam Gun Boats SGB 7 1 Hunting down German E-boats
Motor Torpedo Boats MTB

Coastal Forces of the United States
Type Designation Built Lost Designed purpose
PT boats PT-
Submarine chasers SC- and PC-

Coastal Forces of Germany
Type Designation Built Lost Designed purpose
Schnellboot (E-boats) S-
R boat

Coastal Forces of Italy
Type Designation Built Lost Designed purpose
MAS-boat
Motoscafo Silurante 36

Post war

Post war there seemed to be no need for small coastal force vessels. They were generally withdrawn and their functions taken over by larger corvettes, frigates, and destroyers. A few remained in service with Third World navies. The RN's last boats built in any number were the Dark-class fast patrol boats of the mid-1950s; Coastal Forces was reduced in 1957 to a few vessels.

In time, the need for smaller vessels re-asserted itself, as in this experience of the Royal Australian Navy:

The motor launches quickly passed out of service after the war and coastal patrol duties once more devolved upon larger RAN ships. From the early 1960s the Ton class minesweepers took on significant patrol responsibilities, particularly during the Indonesian Confrontation from 1962-1966. This experience led directly to the decision to reintroduce patrol boats to the RAN inventory, as the minesweepers were expensive to maintain and their engines were not designed to loiter on patrol.

— [1]

Coastal boats reappeared in navies around the world now generally adapted to the need to "patrol" and designated as "patrol boats".

Surviving craft

Following is a list of notable surviving coastal craft from World War II.

Vessel MGB81 Country Great Britain Type Motor Gun Boat Design British Powerboat Company Built 1942 In the care of Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust Notes
HNoMS Hitra Norway submarine chaser Only remaining World War II submarine chaser with intact armament [2]
S-130 Germany E-boat 1943 British Military Powerboat Trust [3] Only surviving German E-boot. Participated in Exercise Tiger and attacks on the D-day invasion fleet.
PT 617 US PT-boat 80-foot Elco Battleship Cove Museum [4] Only completely restored 80-foot Elco PT-boat in existence [5]
PT 796 US PT-boat 78-foot Higgins Battleship Cove Museum [6] restored [7]
MTB 102 UK MTB Private venture 1937 MTB 102 Trust capable of 48 knots unladen

See also

References
  1. "Patrol Boats". Navy Contribution to Australian Maritime Operations. Royal Australian Navy. pp. 133–142. ISBN 0-642-29615-4. Archived from the original on 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  2. Norwegian Navy article on HNoMS Hitra (in Norwegian) Archived November 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Schnellboot S130
  4. Battleship Cove Museum PT-617 Archived 2007-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Elco PT-617 Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Battleship Cove Museum PT-796 Archived 2007-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Higgins PT-796
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